Perhaps the closest we come to
stumbling across the oldest profession in the world, particularly those
who live in London, is on those rare occasions when we have to use a
public phone. Here one is confronted by a plethora of calling cards
offering massage's and other services' crying out, " Busty blond
38DD ", " Asian Stunner " or simply " New girl in
Town ", all with mobile numbers, writ large below. The phone companies
try their best to keep the boxes clean, but as quick as they tear these
cards down, another set reappears.

However, if you
thought that London's hookers have never been so high profile, you
would be wrong in your assumption. No, the period which could be
best described as the golden years for prostitution in London, was
in fact the 'mid' 1700's through to the late 1800's.

Could you imagine even in our enlightened
times, the outrage that a publication would be greeted with, which listed
where London's 'Ladies of the night', plied their trade. Not only that,
but also one that gave quite explicit details as to the services on
offer, the fees involved, a brief description of their physical attributes
and their bedside manner to boot. Well in the 'mid' 1700's a publication
aimed at the wealthier members of society entitled,' Harris's Guide
to Covent Garden Ladies ' did precisely that.

Here follows an extract from the
1788 edition.

"Miss B. Number 18 Old Compton
Street, Soho.This accomplished nymph has just attained her eighteenth year, and
fraught with every perfection, enters a volunteer in the field of Venus.
She plays on the pianoforte, sings, dances, and is the mistress of every
manoeuver in the amorous contest that can enhance the coming pleasure;
is of middle stature, fine auburn hair, dark eyes and very inviting
countenance, which ever seems to beam delight and love. In bed she is
all the heart can wish, or eyes admires every limb is symmetry, every
action under cover truly amorous; her price two pounds".

I don't know about you, but my
history books at school, must have undergone somewhat of a Stalinist
style re-write, because I recall no mention of such goings on in any
of the texts we were set or during any of my lectures covering this
period. It's hard to believe but according to BBC 2's excellent, 'One
foot in the past ' series, there were over 20,000 prostitutes plying
their trade in London during the late Georgian / early Victorian period.
Only the range of person providing these services, from common streetwalkers
to noted actresses of the day equalled the range of services on offer.
Allegedly such was the acceptance of prostitution in London at the time,
that even ladies of high birth dabbled in the art, in some quarters
it was even viewed as a pathway into society, no grubby flats and seedy
pimps for these ladies.

Prostitution in London was no flash
in the pan thing either. On Tuesday 09th May, the Channel 4 television
series 'Secret History ' picked up the baton and aired, "Walter,
portrait of a Victorian pornographer". In which, Walter - we will
never be sure of his true identity, but suspicious fingers point in
the direction of Henry Spencer Ashbee, author of ' My secret life'
- documented over a thousand encounters he had with prostitutes of the
time. His tales were privately printed in Amsterdam and allegedly, copies
of his book even made their way into the hands of certain members of
the royal family. Although his work was deemed pornographic by the high
court in 1969, the British museum successfully appealed against the
books destruction order and has an original copy of this now highly
regarded, if somewhat depraved insight into Victorian life, available
to them. 
Note: Steven Marcus, in his bookThe Other Victorians (New York,
1964) pretty much disproves that Ashbee wrote My Secret Life
but that does not invalidate its contents in anyway - whoever wrote
them reflected the times they lived in and provide a useful insight
into our past sexual history.)

The reason for the book being labeled
as pornographic, lies not so much in the graphic language it uses, but
in its explicit detailing of the sexual acts, that he performed with
children. The age of consent at the time of writing, which was around
the 1860-80's, was an astonishingly low 13, however Walter on occasions
liked them a lot younger. Girls as young as twelve were working in the
West End brothels, indeed in some brothels all the prostitutes were
children

Children, especially those from
poor families were viewed as economic commodities. As we are all too
well aware and it's well documented, many minors were forced to work
in factories and mills out of necessity, to bring much needed income
into the home. However, the general public is probably largely ignorant
that sadly for many children their families effectively acted as their
pimp. A 'Gentleman', and I use the word in its loosest context, would
pay handsomely for a child's services.

Virgins were especially prized
and a highly marketable commodity, fetching anywhere between £5.00
and £ 25.00, a large amount of money - in 1880 the average wage
for a skilled worker was £62.00 per year. Deflowering, as the
custom was quaintly known - perhaps a less pleasant but more accurate
description of this practice, is provided by alternatives offered in
my thesaurus, such as despoil, ravish, defile, rape, violate and molest
- was desirous for two reasons. The first and most obvious, was to fulfill
a sexual fantasy, the second reason was rather more practical, health.
Catching a sexually transmitted disease was a common fear.

It's hard to believe that at the
centre of the ' British Empire' and in the allegedly puritanical Victorian
period, such depravity was not uncommon. What disturbed me further was
my total ignorance of this piece of history. It led me on to a question
that I am still working through, and the one that I will pose to you
now.

What is more worrying, the fact
that these events occurred and were out in the open - to such an extent
that books like the ones mentioned even existed or the fact that so
much of this history, our history, has been swept under the mat, for
so long?

Is history in the process of once
again repeating itself? The calling cards I mentioned at the beginning
of this piece are now so prevalent, that apparently inner-city children
swap them as eagerly as Pokemon cards. Furthermore, only last week,
it was mooted that the law governing television advertising, should
be relaxed to enable 'escort services' to be advertised on late night
television. Now I am not a moral crusader, but it strikes me that prostitution
is definitely climbing out of the shadows once again. That said, I am
not in the slightest offended if Mr. X wants to avail himself of the
services made available by Miss. Y, if both are consenting adults. However,
by opening the door of acceptability to this 'profession', don't we
also allow the more bizarre habits, to seem that bit closer to acceptability
as well?

How and who is going to adjudicate,
what is an acceptable adult service. The law decrees that the legal
age for heterosexual sex is 16. But what if like ' Walter', you have
a penchant for something a bit younger, where would you turn? Perhaps
like Walter, you might turn to the brothel you frequent, to see if something
a little more exotic can be arranged. If Walter were alive now, perhaps
he would dial an escort service?